^ Most of the comments are positive and the ones who are trolls.. well they are get owned like a mofo. lol. They must feel embarrassed as their comments are down at -50 haha. Anyway who cares what other people think. . Andy doesn't give a hell at what these people say, so why should we? Just stick to the real Andy fan sites like this and we can all stop worrying. Just remember these trolls aren't real tennis fans and know f**k all about the sport.

I'm inclined to take the same view as John here. Since Andy won the gold on Sunday and proved himself a true champion in front of the whole world, not just tennis fans.

I dont feel the same need to defend him by leaving comments on media sites. Before that, I was writing scathing replys in his defence.As has been said before, Andy let his tennis do the talking at the Games by beating Roger Federer. Neither we nor Andy will ever be able to change the opinions held by a minority of cretins. If they were not busy dissing and hating Andy, it would be someone else.

That's so true teejay. I was thinking earlier today about Rafa's injury, wondering how bad it really was, and thinking back to when Delpo injured his wrist at the AO - at that point, nobody had any idea that the 2010 season was going to be a virtual write-off for him. Or even worse, the case of Soderling, who's been off the tour for over a year now and has gone from being world number 5 to unranked, and could maybe never come back. It's scary how these things can just happen out of the blue and threaten players' seasons and even careers.

Andy's been lucky on the whole with his injuries, apart from the wrist injury he had in 2007 he's never had to miss a string of tournaments. Hopefully his body will hold up in the coming seasons if he continues to manage his schedule well and doesn't push his body too hard.

The one positive thing about Andy is that he has always understood the importance of taking care of his body - something he once said that his fitness instructor at the tennis academy in Barcelona drummed into him - although in doing so this has often caused him to be criticised (thinking Wade, Haas, Reed, for example). However, as you say, that's no protection against sudden serious injury or illness which could interrupt or end a career, and I guess players, like so many other sportsmen and women, just have to learn to live with that fact, otherwise there would be no point in them continuing to play competitively.

Rafa on the other hand pushed his body to the very limit from a young age, something I fear that maybe his ambitious Uncle Toni might have been responsible for, and has suffered the consequences. His style of play hasn't helped either. Two years ago I read a report on Rafa's website about his knees, written by the doctor treating him. It seems the tendons had to a large extent disintegrated and surgery had been carried out to strengthen them. The doctor could give no guarantee just how long this repair job would last, but added that, unless Rafa played less tournaments and changed his style of play, the prognosis wasn't good.

It will be a sad day for tennis if Rafa is forced into early retirement but I'd far rather see him go whilst still at the top of the game rather than after a slide down the rankings, which is almost certain to happen if he has more seasons like this one.

Oh that's really depressing tj -I'd hoped we'd got beyond that now but there will always be some morons who have to take their spite out on our Andy I fear.

Ruthie - the sad truth is that a lot of top sports people are the object of spite from these brainless wonders. What, for example, about the moron(s) who defacedJessica Ennis's gold post box within hours of it being painted? We only see those directed at Andy because we're his fans. It seems there's a section of British society that can't handle other people's success, but they must be such bitter and twisted individuals that, really, they should be pitied rather than condemned. Andy has won over so many hearts and minds now that the need to defend him has become a bit irrelevant, although that won't stop me if it becomes absolutely necessary to do so.

I didn't think this season was at all bad for Nadal. He's probably played least matches so far this year. Didn't play anything in between AO and Clay season. Played probably 3 grass matches altogether. It has nothing to do with his knees but much more to do with his current mental state.

I didn't think this season was at all bad for Nadal. He's probably played least matches so far this year. Didn't play anything in between AO and Clay season. Played probably 3 grass matches altogether. It has nothing to do with his knees but much more to do with his current mental state.

I didn't think this season was at all bad for Nadal. He's probably played least matches so far this year. Didn't play anything in between AO and Clay season. Played probably 3 grass matches altogether. It has nothing to do with his knees but much more to do with his current mental state.

How do you know what Rafa's mental state is and the state of his knees EJ?

This year:Federer has played 58 matchesDjokovic 54 matchesNadal and Andy 48 matches each.

Nadal is typically used to playing far more matches than this and wins at least 5 to 7 titles a year. But since the rise of Nole, he’s been reduced to 3 or 4 titles so far. Of course, there’s a lot yet to be played but most of his titles come in between AO and Wimbledon. If he's not winning anything outside clay then it's not because of his knee but because the competition has just taken a new turn. As I said on the other thread, he didn't see Rosol coming and that has given the competition a new dynamic. He has to think about these things. Federer, for example, was never ousted by a low ranked player before qtr in his entire career and now, even if he gets ousted by any chance in one of the earlier rounds, he has nothing to worry about. Nadal is not in that stage yet.

How do you know what Rafa's mental state is and the state of his knees EJ?

Just like I know how Andy goes down mentally after a GS final loss for months. A slam loss, especially very early like the one that happened to Nadal at Wimbledon, can take a lot out of you and it may take some time to make a proper come back. Nadal is simply being wise.

Just like I know how Andy goes down mentally after a GS final loss for months. A slam loss, especially very early like the one that happened to Nadal at Wimbledon, can take a lot out of you and it may take some time to make a proper come back. Nadal is simply being wise.

Ahh, but Andy no longer goes down after a slam loss. He's proved that this time.

I know that was a moot point in the flow of the conversation (sorry about that) but still worth saying.

This year:Federer has played 58 matchesDjokovic 54 matchesNadal and Andy 48 matches each.

Nadal is typically used to playing far more matches than this and wins at least 5 to 7 titles a year. But since the rise of Nole, he’s been reduced to 3 or 4 titles so far. Of course, there’s a lot yet to be played but most of his titles come in between AO and Wimbledon. If he's not winning anything outside clay then it's not because of his knee but because the competition has just taken a new turn. As I said on the other thread, he didn't see Rosol coming and that has given the competition a new dynamic. He has to think about these things. Federer, for example, was never ousted by a low ranked player before qtr in his entire career and now, even if he gets ousted by any chance in one of the earlier rounds, he has nothing to worry about. Nadal is not in that stage yet.

Agree with all of that, was just responding to the bit about not playing between AO and the clay. He didn't play in any of the three weeks of 500's (does he normally?) but did play in the two Masters before the clay season.

Agree with all of that, was just responding to the bit about not playing between AO and the clay. He didn't play in any of the three weeks of 500's (does he normally?) but did play in the two Masters before the clay season.

No, Nadal doesn't play those 500s typically. Masters are kind of mandatory so he has to play anyway. I remember he retired against Andy in the semi and then was ousted by Federer in straight at IW in the semi. I don't think he fancied his chanced in either this Masters anyway. I think the last Masters he's won on hard was in 2009 (IW) but he does have USO which is also on hard.